What are the things and who are the people that bring happiness into your life? What makes you so extremely happy that you want to dance through the city like Pharrell does in this video? Do you have a happy dance?
There's a clown that has come into my life during my journey with Crohn's. He's part of the hospital's Clown Posse, a therapeutic clown who goes around trying to spread joy to seriously sick kids. Meet A. LeBoo:
It's only right that there happens to be a Superman poster in the background, this man really is a Superman. During his weekday afternoons hospital show (on tv throughout the hospital) he can often be found smacking eggs against his head in the "Boiled or Not" game, or having things rolled down a slide, into a bucket of water to create the biggest splash to soak him. He remembers everything about the kids he meets, so even if you meet him again after several months, he still knows all about you. He often comes to my room when I'm admitted and spends some time just chatting it up. No matter how bad I might be feeling, just hearing his voice coming down the hall cheers me up because I know I'm in for some fun. It takes a very special person to do what he does and to do it so well. To be able to enter a hospital room where the kids are extremely sick and see the kid for who he or she is instead of their disease, is amazing. I love seeing my clown on his daily visits, in fact, he's the one thing I miss most about the hospital when I'm not there!
A. LeBoo has helped me so much and reminds me of the importance of laughter and happiness in the medical world. Sometimes, even at my age, you just need to have a good bubble popping session, or need to make things disappear and magically reappear. Sometimes you need to make some jokes about your disease (and there's no shortage of them for intestinal disease!). Sometimes you need to be distracted while nurses poke and prod you or jam things into you. Everyone can use a good "silly time" every now and then!
This is what I want to bring to Jacob's Healing Rooms, I want to bring laughter and happiness to an otherwise nasty part of our lives as sick kids - treatment days. Laughter and happiness can inspire hope and help speed up healing, it can inspire us to continue to fight when we feel like everything is working against us. If you are happy, you're like a peaceful warrior and tend to focus on more of the positive, happier things in your life. This takes the focus off how all the negative things can quickly snowball and helps to not let the disease have such an impact on your emotional well-being. I want to help brighten the spirits of other sick kids by updating the outpatient treatment rooms to make them child-friendly. In order to do this, I need your help. Please consider making a donation to support my #BeforeIDie wish to help make a positive difference.
*To make a DONATION to JACOB'S HEALING ROOMS please click HERE*
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